


Against the Fading

by Elke Tanzer (elke_tanzer)



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-02-18
Updated: 2004-02-18
Packaged: 2017-10-02 17:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elke_tanzer/pseuds/Elke%20Tanzer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another Labyrinth snippet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Against the Fading

I am not merely an actor or storyteller, spinning tales from dreams; the roles layer over me, become me, expectations over expectations, like papier mache. Those same layers give me strength and outward form, but also constrain me, trap me.

Human beliefs in our realms had faded, and their shared myths, their communal archetypes, had become solitary thoughts in the darkness, hopes and fears and expectations and dreams, scattered in every direction and interpretation. The layers of identity laid upon me had become as gossamer, thin veils amorphous and unsure, which I could shape.

It had been a strange awakening, realizing that I could change, be changeable, as I wished. At first it was only a little, and more as the decades slid by... until so many vague embraces clutching at me became simply too many and they wrapped me like a shroud, and the self I had come to value was tight-bound by the humans' forgetting. I became my own prison, closing tigher and tighter upon itself, with no impetus, no ability or energy.

By the time her imagination awakened, it was nearly beyond my powers to reach out to it.

It was nearly beyond many of us to even notice such awakenings. The fading, creeping nothingness which had claimed so many of the realms lingered just at the edges of our vision, and many of us closed our eyes.

I could not do so; my duty compelled me, buried deep within the ensnaring blur of a hundred humans' years, and their dreams by the thousands, wishes and fears. Yes, I was awake; I would bear witness to the demise of my kingdom even as I myself faded.

And yet... her belief, her imagination was so strong... once I reached out to it, at the slightest touch it molded itself to me, soaked itself through the weak gauze of countless layers beneath, hardened solid around me... and goaded me into a grueling effort to enact a role worthy of her fantasies. It nearly ended me.

Salvation and damnation. That's my Sarah.


End file.
